Los Angeles, April 3 Hollywood actress Michelle Pfeiffer is paying tribute to her former co-star and friend Val Kilmer after he passed away at the age of 65.
The actor, who rose to fame in the 1980s with roles in films such as 'Top Gun', 'Batman Forever' and 'The Doors', died from complications related to pneumonia after a long battle with health issues, reports ‘Female First UK’.
His passing was announced by his daughter Mercedes. His death sparked a flood of tributes from Hollywood greats, and now Michelle Pfeiffer, 66, has added to them by sharing a black-and-white photograph of herself and Val from the set of the 1985 ABC Afterschool Special 'One Too Many'.
Alongside the image, she wrote, “Rest in peace, Val”. The two actors first met while filming the special, which tackled the dangers of teenage drinking, and formed a close friendship that lasted decades.
As per ‘Female First UK’, Val spoke openly about his bond with the actress in his 2020 memoir, 'I’m Your Huckleberry'.
He described the connection they shared, saying, “The secret pain that Michelle and I shared created an intimacy between us”.
He revealed he had felt comfortable confiding in her about his strained relationship with his parents, while Michelle, in turn, spoke to him about the difficulties in her marriage to Peter Horton, whom she later divorced. Though Val wrote fondly about Michelle, he admitted to having harboured a longstanding attraction to her younger sister, Lori Pfeiffer, now 59.
He said in his memoir, “I had an all-consuming crush on her younger sister Lori, who did not seem to reciprocate, even a little”, he wrote. “In fact, she seemed to not even know I existed”.
While speculation has persisted over whether Michelle and Val ever dated, the details remain unclear. However, Val reflected on their time together in a 2018 Instagram post, sharing the same image Michelle later used in her tribute.
He said, “I first met Michelle through her husband Peter and Mare Winningham, who was my first girlfriend in high school. “It was so amazing to work with all three such talented people in one ‘after school special’ which was, to my memory, always a morality play designed to educate kids just home from school”.
Val, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2015, spent the later years of his life largely out of the public eye, though he made a widely praised return to the screen in 2022, reprising his role as Iceman in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. Michelle has not publicly commented on Val beyond her Instagram post. Along with Mercedes, Val is survived by his son Jack, who he had during his marriage to actress Joanne Whalley.
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